Donovan, 32, has played for the U.S. in the past three World Cups going back to 2002 and is perhaps the best known American player. However, he has talked in recent months about how his age is catching up with him.

He expressed his disappointment in not making the squad on Facebook on Thursday night.

"I was looking forward to playing in Brazil and, as you can imagine, I am very disappointed with today's decision," he wrote.

U.S. manager Jurgen Klinsmann picked the 23 players who will represent the U.S. and will give a press conference Friday on the campus of Stanford University.

"It's an exciting moment when you have narrowed the roster down as a coaching staff, and these 23 players that you've chosen can focus now purely on Brazil," Klinsmann in a statement released Thursday. "We can go into more specific things about technical approaches, and about the opponents. For the players, it's very important to know that they are now part of it and they can relax and know they are on the list going to Brazil and taking it from there. After almost 10 days of work right now, we thought the point has come to make the decision."

Other names that stood out among the players not making the U.S. team included forward Terrence Boyd, midfielders Joe Corona and Maurice Edu and defenders Brad Evans, Clarence Goodson and Michael Parkhurst.

The U.S. will play three warm-up matches against Azerbaijan, Turkey and Nigeria in the U.S. before leaving for Brazil. They kick off World Cup play by facing Ghana on June 16 in Natal, Brazil. Their other first-round matchups include games against Portugal on June 22 and Germany on June 26.